District 19 Little League: South Marple works late to gain win

South Marple left fielder Luke Signoka dives for a foul ball in the sixth inning of Sunday’s game. South Marple beat Aston-Middletown, 12-8, to reach the District 19 major division final. (Times Staff/ROBERT J. GURECKI)

UPPER PROVIDENCE — It was close to midnight by the time Joe Pettinelli got to bed Saturday night, and he was spent. The South Marple second baseman did not get up until 11:45 Sunday morning.

Playing two games, the completion of a suspended game followed by a full game in a span of three hours will do that, even to a 12-year-old.

Shortstop Patrick Marley and outfielder Joe Taggart were just as worn out. Both arose about 10:30 Sunday morning.

Yet all three, along with the 10 other players on the roster, had enough energy in reserve to celebrate after South Marple made history with a 12-8 victory over Aston-Middletown Sunday evening at Media Little League.

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This is only the second time in franchise history that SMLL has reached the District 19 Little League major division final and the first in 35 years, according to head coach Tom Davis. And even he wasn’t so sure about the latter.

“I think it was 1979,” Davis said.

Regardless, it’s been a long time and the South Marple players were going to whoop it up, even if they were exhausted from playing three games, covering 21 innings, in a span of 22 hours.

South Marple’s reward is a 6 p.m. date tonight with undefeated Taney Little League at Media.

Taney is 4-0 and has outscored its opponents, 33-16.

But none of that mattered as the sun began to set Sunday. South Marple was flying high after winning its third game in less than a day.

The crazy set of circumstances began with an 11-10, nine-inning, come-from-behind victory over Haverford Township in the completion of a game that was suspended Thursday by the weather. That game didn’t start until 8 o’clock Saturday night because there was a 10-11 bracket game at 6 p.m.

Then, South Marple had to knock off Newtown-Edgmont, 4-3, to set up its meeting with AMLL in the loser’s bracket final Sunday.

To get through that gauntlet, South Marple used 10 pitchers who threw a combined 287 pitches.

“It was crazy, but we got through it,” Davis said. “It really was a total team effort. Every player, from one through 13, came through with a top-notch effort. They battled in every game and stayed tough even when things didn’t look good.”

Like Saturday night, when Haverford threatened to expand its lead. Erik Molinaro, one of the eight pitchers Davis used that night, got a big strikeout to get out of a jam. SMLL scored four runs in its next at-bat to take the lead for good.

“That was huge,” Marley said. “That really boosted our confidence.”

Pettinelli gave SMLL an even bigger lift when he a belted grand slam into the teeth of a stiff wind over the right-field fence in the third inning to highlight a nine-run outburst against Aston-Middletown that gave South Marple a commanding 10-1 lead.

Pettinelli gave all the credit for that blast to Marley.

“He told me to break it open,” said Pettinelli, who went 3-for-4 with five RBIs and two run scored. “I wanted to go to the opposite field so the guy on second base (Benny Davis) would have a chance to score. I was fortunate that it went over the fence.”

There were many other heroes. Joe Sperone ripped a big two-run double during that third-inning outburst. Molinaro and pitcher Michael Wennemer, who closed out the victory over Newtown-Edgmont Saturday, came through with clutch RBI doubles in the top of the sixth inning to give SMLL a four-run cushion.

With Aston-Middletown threatening in the bottom of the sixth inning, right-fielder Jimmy Yocum speared a line drive off the bat of Destin Pagan and fired to second base for a game-ending double play.

Wennemer, the only 11-year-old on the roster, pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to nail down the victory for Taggart, the third of four South Marple pitchers to see action.

Davis turned to Taggert after Aston-Middletown cut the deficit to 10-4.

“All I wanted to do was get out of the inning with as little damage as possible,” Taggart said.

He did, and then pitched two more innings, where he gave up three runs on a three-run blast by AMLL’s Chad Walker before giving way to Wennemer with two outs in the fifth inning.

“These guys have been together so long they know each other,” Davis said. “They’ve been together since they were 9-10 so they know what they’re capable of doing and they’re not surprised when someone steps up, like Molinaro or Wennemaker. They both had clutch hits for us in the sixth inning and for the second straight night Wennemer was real good on the mound. It’s a confident team that knows how to win.”

A point South Marple proved three times in a 22-hour span Saturday and Sunday.